Off Broadway’s Signature Theatre Taps New Executive Director

New York’s Signature Theatre has named Harold Wolpert its new Executive Director, the theater’s board of trustees announced today. He’ll start work April 2 at one of Off Broadway’s premiere not-for-profit companies, and serve alongside Artistic Director Paige Evans.

Wolpert has nearly three decades of experience in arts administration at major not-for-profit theatre companies, including Broadway’s Roundabout Theatre Company, which he left in 2016 as Managing Director. He’s also held leadership roles at the Manhattan Theatre Club, and the Alley Theatre.

“For nearly 30 years I have watched with admiration as Signature has grown and flourished, becoming one of this city’s essential cultural institutions,” Wolpert said. “Providing an immersive exploration into multiple writers’ bodies of work in the thrillingly designed Pershing Square Signature Center, offering tens of thousands of subsidized tickets each season — no one is doing what Signature is doing.”

Signature Theatre is renowned for staging series of plays by selected writers – past seasons were devoted to Tony Kushner and Horton Foote. This season’s offerings include plays by Suzan-Lori Parks, and the theater currently is staging Lila Neugebauer’s production of Edward Albee’s At Home at the Zoo starring Robert Sean Leonard.

Signature has been looking for a new exec director since last Fall, when Erika Mallin announced she was leaving the company.

Signature President Nina Matis said, “Harold Wolpert’s experience as one of the most accomplished and respected not-for-profit arts leaders in the country, along with his strategic savvy, personal warmth, and passion for Signature’s mission, make him the ideal person to lead this dynamic, one-of-a-kind company alongside Paige Evans.”